Explosive-engine



D. F. ASBURY.

EXPLQSlVE ENGINE. APPLiCATlON FILED JAN-4,1918.

1,396,91 2. Patented Nov. 15, 1921.

5 SHEETS-SHEET I.

D. F. ASBURY.

EXPLOSIVE ENGINE.

APPLICATION FILED JAN-4,1918.

Patented Nov.. 15, 1921.

5 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

r7 7 TORI/7.

n. F. ASBURY. EXPLOSIVE ENGINE. APPLICATION FILED JAN-4.14MB- Patented Nov. 15, 1921.

5 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

D F. ASBURY. EXPLOSIVE ENGINE. APPLICATION FILED JANA me.

1 ,396,9 1 2. Patented Nov. 15, 1921.

. Arron/viz D. F. ASBURY.

EXPLOSIVE ENGINE.

APPLICATION FILED JAN.4, 19I8- 1,396,912. Patented Nov. 15, 1921 5 SHEETS-SHEET 5.

UNITED STATES DORSEY I. ASBUEY, OF WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

EXPLOSIVE-ENGINE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 15, 1921.

Application filed January 4, 1918. Serial No. 210,280.

T 0 all :whom it may concern:

Be 1t known that I, DORSEY F. AsnUnY,

a citizen of the United States, residing at.

Washington, District of Columbia, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Explosive-Engines; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it a pertains to make and use the same.

y invention relates to explosive engines and particularly to an improved valve and valve gear therefor.

The objects of my invention are to central ize the supply and exhaust ports in multi ple cylinder explosive engines; to provide an improved structure wherein a single valve will serve four cylinders; to provide a rotary valve which will control the operation of each cylinder. during the four stroke cycle; to provide a valve which will operate while the pistons of the cylinders are practically at rest; to provide meansfor moving the valvevery fast while the pistons in the cylinders are moving very slow and vice versa; to provide means for moving thevalve once between each stroke of the piston; to provide a valve which will simultaneously supply one cylinder with explosive, prevent the escape of explosive from another cylinder, prevent the escape of exploded explosive from another cylinder; and permit the gases of explosion to escape from another cylinder; to provide a valve for a four stroke cycle four cylinder engine which will elfect simultaneously fourtimes during a complete cycle of the valve, a supply of explosive to one cylinder, prevent escape of explosive from another cylinder, prevent escape of exploded explosive from another cylinder, and permit the gases of explosion to escape from another cylinder; to provide a valve which will require but one port in a cylinder for both supply and exhaust; to provide a. valve having an exhaust port adapted to simultaneously permit the final escape of the gases of explosion from one cylinder and the initial escape of the gases of explosion from another cylinder; to provide a structure wherein the bearing surfaces of the valve are materially protected from the heat of the exhaust lead; to provide means for cool- 'ing a rotary valve through the medium of the gases being supplied; to provide a very loosely fitting joint that will prevent leakage between the. rota ing xhaus lead at the valve and the stationary exhaust pipe and a flexible diaphragm supporting the exhaust pipe and permitting the latter to assume the center of rotation; to provide a rotary valve and a sleeve surrounding the valve together with pressure operated means for forcing the sleeve against the valve to prevent leakage between the sleeve and valve; to provide an interdigitating bearing between the valve and engine to prevent leakage; to provide a four cylinder engine and valve wherein leakage from the firing cylinder by the valve will raise the compression in the compression cylinder, and leakage from the compression cylinder by the valve will enter the cylinder being supplied with explosive and increase the supply of explosive therein; and to provide a four stroke cycle engine requiring but a single valve to control the operation thereof.

In the drawings chosen to illustrate my invention, the scope whereof is pointed out in the claims, A a

Figure 1 is a longitudinal section of an explosive engine constructed in accordance with my invention;

Fig. 2, a section on the line 22 of Fig. 1 showing the valve at its point of greatest velocity;

Fig. 3, a detail view of the cam operating mechanism of the valve with the parts in the position they would occupy when the valve is at rest temporarily;

Fig. 4, a side view of the valve detached;

Fig. 5, a view similar to Fig. 2 showing a modified form of the invention;

Fig. 6, an irregular horizontal section through the top of the engine body in Fig. 5; and

Fig. 7 a section on the line 77 of Fig. 5.

I will describe my invention as app ied to a four cylinder four stroke cycle explosive engine but it will be understood that the invention is in no way limited to-such application and that it can be utilized with engines of varying numbers of cylinders of both the four stroke cycle type and the two stroke cycle type.

Referring now. particularly to the drawing, A indicates the engine case so cast as to form cylinders B, C, D and E. The. case A includes a removable top casting F shaped and constructed to form ports 10; 11, 12 and 13 leading from the "explosion chambers of the cylinders B, C, D and E respectively to a common valve chamber 1-2 included 1n the top F and extending transversely thereof. Mounted in the case A is a crank shaft 15. Operatively mounted in the cylinders B, O,

D and E are the usual pistons 16, 17, 18 and 19 respectively and these pistons are connected respectively with the crank shaft by connecting rods 20 in the usual and well known manner. The wall of a portion of the valve chamber 14 is formed by a sleeve 21 secured to the top F by means of keys 22 which include respectively the ends of the ports 10, 11, 12 and 13 adjacent the valve chamber 14; The outer ends of the keys 22 through the side of the valve, the exhaust port being in advance of the supply port. These ports 27 and 28 have leads 29 and 30 respectively, the lead of the supply port surrounding the lead of the exhaust port and serving to interpose a relatively cool explosive, between the exhaust lead and the other portions of the valve to materially absorb the heat from the valve and thus reduce the valves temperature at the bearing surfaces to permit easier rotation of the valve. The

7 end of the exhaust lead remote from the port 27 has a relatively loose interdigitating connection 31 with one end of a stationary exhaust pipe 32 so as to permit easy and unrestricted rotation of the valve G without leakage. The exhaust pipe 32 is supported by the flexible diaphragm 25 which readily permits the pipe to assume the center of rotation and thereby avoid any great accuracy in the production of the parts. The end of the'valve G remote from the pipe 32 has an interdigitating connection 33 with the top H forthe purpose of preventing leakage. A stem provided on the valve G and rotates in a doublebearing 35 embodied'in the top F. Fixedon the stem 34 is a four arm'sp'ider H with the adjacent arms disposed at right angles to each other and oppos'ite' arms disposed in alinement. The free end of each of these arms terminate in opposed cams 36 and 37 for a purpose that will presentlyapp'ear. The spider H and the stem'34 of the valve are confined in a closure 38' formed by suitable extensions 39 and 40 on the top F and the body portion of the case A. Rotatably'mounted in this "closure 38 is a vertical shaft 41 having its axis of "rotation disposed at right angles will? axis of rotation of the stem 34 of the valve G. Carried on the upper end of the shaft 4.1 is an arcuate cross arm 41 and mounted on the ends of this arm are cam follower rollers 42 and 43. The axes and surface elements of these rollers and likewise the surface elements of all the cams 36 and 37 pass through the intersection of prolongations of the cen ter lines of the shaft 41 and valve stem 31 to produce a perfect roller bearing. It will be observed that the cams 36 and 37 are of such extent that one or both of the rollers 42 and 43 are always in engagement there with so that any rotation imparted to the spider H is a positive rotation produced by rotation of the shaft 41. Fixed on the lower end of the shaft 41 is a worm wheel 44 which meshes with a worm 45 fixed on the crank shaft 15 for rotation 011 an axis coincident with the bearing axis of said crank shaft and whereby the rotation of the crank shaft 15 will effect rotation of the shaft 41 to in turn produce the desired rotation of the valve G through the medium of the cam and cam follower mechanism previously described. Itwill be noted that the relation of the worm wheel 44 and worm 45 is such that one revolution of the crank shaft 15 will produce one revolution of the shaft 41 and that one-half of a revolution of the shaft 41 produces one-fourth of a revolution of the spider H and the valve G. It, therefore, follows that two revolutions of the shaft 41 will produce one revolution of the valve G. It will be further noted that the shaft 41 re tates at constant velocity while the spider H and valve G rotates at varying velocity and this velocity of the spider and valve will be of a decreasing and increasing type during the rotation of the valve, the mechanism be ing so timed and arranged that the valve partakes of its increased velocity when the pistons are moving slow or at the termination and beginning of the strokes of the pistons while the least velocity of the valve is present when the pistons have their greatest velocity.

In Fig. 1 the cylinder C has fired and the valve G'is moving at its greatest velocity, the port 11 being closed by the valve to prevent escape of the exploded explosive. At this time the cylinder B has taken in the explosive and as it starts to move upwardly the valve G rotates and closes the port 10 and at the same time the supply port 28 of i the valve moves into communication with the port 12 so that the cylinder G will take in explosive during the downward movement of the piston 18. During these conditions the'exhaust port 27 of the valve remains in communication with the port 1.3 to permit full exhaust from the cylinder E during upward movement of the piston 19. hen the pistons 16 and 19 have reached the limit of their upward movement and the pistons 17 l l O sively firing after the cylinder B. It will be noted in Fig. 1 that the port of the compression cylinder is between the port of the firing cylinder and the port of the cylinder taking in explosive. This relation of ports exists constantly during the operation of the engine and the advantage resides in the fact that should any of the gases escape from the firing cylinder by way of the valve to the port of the compression cylinder they will enter the compression cylinder and increase the compression while on the other hand should any of the explosive escape from the compression cylinder by wayof the valve to the port of the cylinder being supplied it will serve to increase the supply of explosive in said cylinder.

Referring further to Fig. 1 it will be observed that when pressure is present in any of the cylinders such pressure will fill the spaces 23 and act against the outer surfaces of the keys 22 and thus force the sleeve 21 against the valve G to produce a gas tight seal between the valve and the sleeve. This pressure will also act against the walls of the keys formed by respective cylinder ports and force the outer walls of the keys against the engine body and thus produce a seal to prevent any pressure getting between the sleeve and engine body. By reversing the position of spider H on the stem 34 the engine can be operated in the reverse direc tion. the valve, however, continuing to move in the same direction.

In the modified form of my invention shown in Figs. 5, 6 and 7 I render the combined structure of the valve and valve gear more compact. To this end I form the shaft 41 of two sections 46 and 47, the former con stituting the stem of the valve G. Fixed on the case of the engine is a circular rack 48 and fixed on the lower section 47 of the shaft 41 is a bracket 49 which rotatably supports the journal shaft 50 of a gear 51, the latter meshing with the rack 48. The upper end of the shaft 50 terminates in a crank arm 52 which rotatably supports a roller 53, the latter being disposed between arms 54 and 55 suitabl fixed on the section 46 of the shaft 41. T e lower end of the section 47 of the shaft 41 has fixed thereon the worm wheel 44which meshes with the worm 45. By this construction it will be obvious that when the crank shaft 15 is rotated the section 47 will be rotated as will likewise the bracket 49. This rotation of the bracket 49 will effect rotation of the gear 51 and the resultant movement of the crank arm 52 and roller 53 will cause the proper coaction between said roller and arms 54and 55 to rotate the section 46 and valve G with decreasing and increasing velocity and such decreases and increases in velocity of the valve will occur four times during each revolution of the valve owing to the timing and arrangement of the modified form of valve gear heretofore described.

What I claim is:

1. In an explosive engine including an ex plosion chamber having a port, a rotary valve controlling the port, and a sleeve between the valve and chamber keyed to the engine, the key being provided with a port in registry with the engine port and having its outer surface exposed to chamber pressure.

2. In an explosive engine including an explosion chamber, a rotary valve, a sleeve between the valve and chamber, and a key securing the sleeve to the engine and having one surface in engagement with the engine and an opposed surface exposed to chamber pressure whereby movement of the sleeve toward the valve is permitted without leakage between the sleeve and engine.

3. In an explosive engine including an explosion chamber having a port, a rotary valve, a sleeve between the valve and chamber, and a key securing the sleeve to the engine and including a portion of said port,

said key having its surface remote from the valve exposed to pressure within the charm her to force the sleeve against the valve during the presence of such pressure and produce a gas tight seal between the sleeve and valve.

4. In an explosive engine, a rotary valve having an ex aust port and a lead therefrom, an exhaust pipe, an interdigitating connection between the pipe and valve permitting rotation of the latter with respect to said pipe, and a flexible diaphragm supporting the pipe and permitting the latter to assume the center of rotation freely.

5. In an explosive engine, a movable valve, means for moving and arresting the valve, said means consisting of four pairs of cams on the valve stem, a shaft driven by the engine, a cross arm carried by the shaft, rollers mounted on said arms and cooperating with the cams during the rotation of the shaft, the axes of the rollers being disposed at an angle of forty-five degrees to the shaft and passing through the center of the intersection of a prolongation of the shaft and valve stem.

6. In an explosive engine, a rotary valve having an exhaust port and a lead therefrom, an exhaust pipe, a connection between the pipe and valve permitting rotation of the latter with respect to said pipe, and a flexible diaphragm supporting the pipe and permitting the latter to assume the center of rotation freely.

7.. In an explosive engine, a movable valve,

the center of the intersection of a prolongation of the shaft and valve stem. 10 In testimony whereof I afiix my signature, in the presence of two subscribin Witnesses.

DORSEY F. A BURY. Witnesses:

A. G. LEEoH, J12,

EDITH S'roWELL. 

